Promises to Keep
by YunaDax
Summary: John and Elizabeth have both returned to Earth, married, and got on with their lives. Until one day someone tries to murder Elizabeth...
1. Chapter 1

It had taken hours to locate many of the bodies, and longer to extract them. The twisted ruins of the lecture hall created a situation so dangerous, that even the emergency services were hesitant to enter. The death toll currently stood at 57, with many more unaccounted for.

John Sheppard paced around the now secured perimeter within the university grounds, angry, frustration at the lack of progress evident. Jack O'Neill stood stoically under one of the large maple trees, keeping his eye on the incessantly pacing Colonel. He understood the officer's distress, his wife was still listed as one of the missing along with many of her students. He understood, heck he even sympathized with John's anguish, but there was little he could do except make sure John remained on the correct side of the perimeter and didn't go charging headline into the rescue effort, which would only make things worse for all concerned.

" I should be the one in there looking for her" John spat between clenched teeth, his hands balled into white knuckle fists and his entire body radiating emotional tension.

" You'll only get yourself hurt, and get in the way. Let them do their work" Jack replied with as much authority as he could project. His tone seemed to calm Sheppard a little, or at least keep the grumbling to a minimum. The pacing however continued, his dark caged eyes following every firefighter and rescue officer that entered what was left of the lecture hall.

_The firefighter scrubbed the dirt and soot off his mask, creating a slightly clearer space that he could see though. A gesture to his CO indicated the direction he was going to search, whether it would be for survivors or bodies he wouldn't know until he found them._

_He skirted the fallen girder, managing to squeeze through a small cavity between it and the floor without getting his air tanks hooked. The smashed lecture lay strewn in a small crevice, barely large enough for someone to sit up in, but still, a cavity just the same. His hope flared as his flashlight picked up something wedged against the remnants of an ornate red cedar table. Hair… dark hair with a rebellious curl that framed a bruised and battered face. He crawled closer, slipping his heavy gloves from his hand as he did so. Carefully he reached over her face, careful not to move her head but close enough to feel if she was breathing. Current thinking precluded the checking of a pulse these days, figuring that if a person was breathing, then their heart was obviously beating. Give it another 5 years and the procedure would change again, but he would deal with that when they decided to implement them._

" _Chief, I got a live one, female, early 40s… search region delta 3, send in a spine board and have an EMT standing by" he called into his radio, shoving it back into his pocket before crawling to better access his victim's situation. She was pinned by the legs from what he could see, twisted metal debris covering her from the waist down. He moved what he could with his hand, careful not to disturb the stability of their little cave._

" _Yo Bob, what ya got?" Came the muffled voice from behind him as another firefighter made his way forward, dragging a spine board and a securing harness with him._

" _Nearly done… just give me a hand with this and I think we'll have her out" Bob replied, pointing to the one piece of metal that was pinning her legs. Together they pushed and pulled it just enough they could pull her out, careful not to jostle the neck brace they'd just applied. They maneuvered her onto the spine board and secured the harness, dragging it between them back towards the outside world. _

_They'd barely had enough time to rise to their feet and carry her towards the waiting EMT before a bystander surged forward, ignoring the restraint of what looked like an authority figure._

" _Elizabeth!" the man shouted, and forced his way to her side, bringing the firefighters to a grinding halt._

" _Look buddy… you need to step aside" Bob tried to placate the man but was met with fiery resistance._

" _Look… BUDDY… that's my wife and I ain't goin anywhere" He rebuked, grasping one of the woman's hands with his own. Knowing they weren't going anywhere without him, they continued on to the waiting ambulance and relinquished their patient to the EMT._

Strong hands forced John to stand back a few steps as the EMT took stock to Elizabeth's injuries and he stole a second to glare at their owner. Jack returned the glare but refused to yield, hoping him fast until he relaxed a little.

" You the husband?" The EMT asked, hooking up an IV line and stablising what looked like a badly broken arm.

" Yes Sir I am" John replied with as much civility as he could muster.

" Jump in, we're taking her to Georgetown Hospital"

John didn't reply, instead jogging towards the passenger seat in the cab and climbing in. He didn't notice Jack on his phone asking a favour from Dr Lam as the ambulance accelerated away from the twisted ruins of the lecture hall, its precious cargo now in the hands of those who could help her.


	2. Chapter 2

Two days after the explosion the Police and Fire units had finished pulling bodies from the lecture hall and began looking into the causes behind the explosion. From the magnitude of the explosion and the way the building has collapsed in onto itself they discerned that it was an explosive charge, if not several strategically planted within the lecture hall that caused such devastation. The body count had risen alarmingly to 109, with only a handful of victims surviving the carnage, all with severe injuries.

" Don't look like anyone was supposed to survive that mess" The Fire Chief commented to the Police Sergeant involved with the investigation. They'd begun the slow process of deconstructing the crime scene, looking for explosive charge remnants, or anything else that could indicate where the bombs had been placed, and more importantly, who by.

" Sure don't. As you were" The Police Chief dismissed the fireman and headed back to his laptop, adding a few locations where bomb shrapnel had been found to the blueprint of the lecture hall. The more he looked at it, the more it seemed the lecturer herself had been the target, with the rest of the students being collateral damage. Whoever did this know what they were doing, and knew their target. It was pure unadulterated luck that anyone survived at all.

Meanwhile back at the Stargate Command infirmary Dr Elizabeth Weir lay heavily sedated, her mangled arm now set, pinned and plastered into place, likewise with the pins holding her fractured ankle together. The swelling in her brain had finally started to abate, negating the need for any kind of further surgery, but it would be a miracle if she left the base any time soon. John Sheppard hadn't left her side since the explosion, even sleeping in an uncomfortable hospital chair by her bedside, his hand resting over hers lest she show any signs of waking up. General Jack O'Neill popped by every day, forcing John to shower and eat whilst he took over from watching Elizabeth.

The nurses checked on her every four hours, recording her vital signs and checking her bandages and plasters for anything that might go amiss. They smiled reassuringly at John as they did so, knowing what agony it must be for him to be relegated to the bedside vigil. Dr Lam had organized for Elizabeth to be transferred from the local hospital to the base's infirmary within short order of her being pulled from the carnage, preferring to look after the former Atlantis leader herself to ensure the best possible care. Not that she didn't trust the local medics, it was just the myriad of medical devices SG1 had picked up over the years generally worked a hell of a lot better than the good ole technology of today.

John lay dozing next to Elizabeth's bed, this time his head resting on the edge of the raised gurney, his hand still wrapped around hers. His head jerked up as he felt a movement. It wasn't much, but he swore he felt her fingers move.

" Elizabeth?" He called softly, giving her hand a squeeze to encourage her. Dr Lam heard the voice and wandered over, stethoscope hooked around her neck should she need it.

" Elizabeth, wake up and join the land of the living again" John prodded, giving her hand another squeeze. There was an almost imperceptible squeeze back, coupled with a small movement of her head. Her eyelids screwed together as she seemed to become aware of what was around her, finally cracking open to reveal the confused hazel eyes behind.

" John?" She croaked, her voice hoarse from disuse.

" I'm here, you're in the SGC's infirmary" John explained, following Elizabeth's eyes and she took in her surroundings.

" You gave everyone quite a scare" Dr Lam added, taking Elizabeth's chin gently and turning it toward her, shining a pen light into her pupils to gauge her level of reaction. " How do you feel?" She asked, giving Elizabeth a quick once over before leaning back against the IV stand and dialing back one of the bags.

" Like I've been hit by a puddlejumper" Elizabeth groaning, closing her eyes against the harsh lighting and leaving them closed for a few moments before opening them again.

" Can you remember what happened?" Lam continued, gently prodding to see how much Dr Weir recalled of what happened to her.

Elizabeth paused for a moment, as though trying to recall where the normality had stopped and the nightmare began. Her brow furrowed in thought before she spoke.

" I was teaching my Poli-Sci class…then… Oh God the students!" Her unplastered hand covered her face, as though she could hide from the terrifying memories coming back to her again. " Please tell me the students made it" She whispered, already knowing it was an empty plea.

" Only 4 survived, apart from yourself. I'm sorry" Lam apologized " They're being treated at the local hospital. I'm told they should make it"

" Oh God…" Elizabeth repeated, a tremble starting to shake her frame. John reached forward and parked his backside on the bed, minding her plastered ankle and pulled her into an embrace, stroking her back and hair until she had finishing crying out her grief and pain.

" It's ok… we just need to catch the bastards that did this" John soothed, hoping the prompt as to who might be responsible would get a reaction from Elizabeth. She remained silent, tremors still shaking her body occasionally as her mind dealt with the reactions of the last few days.

Elizabeth's mind whirled as she considered who might have tried to kill her… or her students. Whilst if she were back in the Pegasus Galaxy there would be a sizeable list of people she knew had a price on her head, but here on Earth? Ever since she'd finally spat the dummy at the IOA's constant interfering and second guessing her decisions and resigned from the Atlantis Expedition, taking up her old teaching position at the Georgetown University. John had returned to Earth with her, and they had married within a year of them both leaving Pegasus. Since then it had been smooth sailing. John remained a SG team leader at Stargate Command, whilst Elizabeth turned her hand back to teaching, still consulting with the SGC as required. She'd been working on some Ancient translations for Daniel, giving him a hand with the numerous artifacts coming through the Stargate for study from the Atlantis Expedition. She'd taken a number of items home with her over the last few weeks, spending a few hours as she could grab them pouring over the artifacts, wracking her brains and the textbooks to translate the various Ancient dialects. The one she'd been working on over the past week however had been of great interest. Shaped somewhat like the Goa'uld healing device that SG1 had brought back several years ago but on a much larger scale, the inscriptions covering the rear of the device told of powerful alterations to the human genome. The makings of a super-soldier perhaps, she had mused initially, before getting sidetracked marking her students assignments. She'd emailed Daniel with her initial findings and had put the object aside, storing it securely in the safe that herself and John kept their 'work' valuables in. Her gut instinct told her John hadn't been home in days, but their home was in a safe area of town, and the safe was impenetrable, or at least that's what they'd been told. Her gut twisted again and she grimaced.

" She needs to rest, why don't you go get something to eat?" Dr Lam encouraged, mistaking Elizabeth's silence as tiredness. Elizabeth was grateful for the reprieve, not wanting to consider that the device she'd been translating could be what got her into this mess. John left reluctantly and she shifted in the pillows to get comfortable again, letting her mind wander before drifting off to sleep again. She would tell John about the device tomorrow, and the history behind it, and hopefully this mess would be over with once and for all. If only it would be that simple.


	3. Chapter 3

A week after the explosion, Dr Elizabeth Weir was finally allowed to leave the Stargate Command infirmary, if only to move into one of the staterooms on the base until full reason behind what the Police were calling was a murder attempt on her life was uncovered. They had pieced together several explosive charges within the lecture hall and concluded that she had been the intended target of the explosion, with the rest of the students merely collateral damage.

Unable to use crutches due to her broken arm, she was forced to rely on the help of others to get around in a wheelchair, something her wounded pride did not take well to. John had requested leave until she was able to return home, but Elizabeth had insisted that he keep working, and despite his protests to the contrary, explaining that she had plenty to keep her occupied even restricted to the base. He had reluctantly agreed and assigned an airman to assist her as necessary, leaving strict instructions that she wasn't to overexert herself.

On the second day after she'd been released from the infirmary John came to her stateroom in the afternoon, a concerned expression on his face. He excused the airman and closed the door, ensuring them a few moments of privacy away from the prying ears of others.

" Elizabeth… we've got a problem" He said simply, plonking himself down on the couch next to her, careful not to jostle her elevated ankle. He watched the colour drain visibly from her face as she prepared herself for whatever news he had to tell her.

" Our house was broken into. They've taken the safe, and your computers. I'd just popped home to pick up some fresh clothes for you when I found out. " John said slowly, focusing now on his hands as though there was some way he could have prevented this.

" When?" She asked, the worry and concern in her eyes evident. She still hadn't told John about the artefact she'd been working on… and how it may have been connected to the explosion.

" It's hard to tell, but the Cops think it was the morning of the explosion." John explained, wondering why the timeframe was suddenly important to her.

The pieces slid into place in Elizabeth's mind, still not knowing the 'Who', but now figuring out the 'Why'. Now was a good a time as ever.

" Daniel had me translating an Ancient artefact, I'd been working on it on and off for a couple of weeks and had it stored in the safe. I'd just finished the translation the evening before the explosion, and it looked to be a genome resequenser, kinda like the 'ascension' devise Rodney found back on Atlantis, but instead turning the subject into a 'super human' and keeping them that way. I'd emailed the encrypted translation to Daniel before I left for the university that morning." She explained, watching the different emotions battle for supremacy on John's face. He was angry that she'd kept information from him, concerned that she was so heavily involved in something that had already cost the lives of so many people, and terrified for her future safety.

" Do you know who might have intercepted that email?" He asked, holding her good hand to provide a small semblance of comfort.

" No, and I don't know who tried to blow up the lecture hall. All I know is that they have the device they were after, and they wanted to kill everyone associated with it to prevent any further problems." Elizabeth dropped her head, her dark curls obscuring her face from his eyes.

" You said the email was encrypted, yes?" John's mind buzzed with various contingencies, none of them coming up with anything remotely resembling positive outcomes.

" Yeah, I always encrypt my emails when I translate for Daniel... just in case" She replied from behind her hair.

" What if they hadn't been able to crack the encryption?" He prodded, trying to bring at least a little hope to the conversation.

" Then both Daniel and myself have a price on our heads" Elizabeth moaned " Damnit... now he's in danger as well"

" I'm gonna to have a chat to Landry and sort out protection for Daniel, you stay here ok?" He squeezed her hand before releasing it and kneeling in front of her, gently raising her chin to meet his gaze.

" We're gonna get through this… I'm not gonna let anything or anyone harm you" He reassured, sealing the promise with a kiss before leaving and heading up to Landry's office.

Not long after John had left the airman returned to the room, saying that Dr Lam wanted to run some more test and had asked him to bring Elizabeth to the infirmary. He assisted her into the wheelchair and headed towards the elevators, swiping his security card as they arrived at the large metal doors. A quick look around him told him there was only one security camera watching this location. That small issue was quickly resolved by a single bullet from his weapon, complete with silencer. Before she had a chance to cry for help a cloth soaked in a chemical she couldn't identify was clamped over her mouth and nose, forcing her to inhale its toxic contents. Her last conscious thoughts were of John's safety, and how she may never see him again before the darkness claimed her. The airman moved quickly, pushing the wheelchair into the elevator as soon as the door slid open. He carefully positioned her so that she appeared to be sitting under her own power, merely asleep. Jabbing the button for the car-park he shot the camera in the elevator, knowing that by the time anyone realised what was going on, he would be long gone.

A moment later the wheelchair was stashed in a stairwell next to the naked body of the airman who's uniform he has stolen, and Elizabeth stuffed into the boot of an plainly nondescript car with false number plates. He quickly tied a gag over her mouth, and bound her hands together, knowing she would probably remain unconscious but not willing to take any chances. The guards at the gate checked his creditionals as he left, not catching on to the fact he had entered under a completely different ID. Not daring to hasten his escape he smiled in thanks to the guards and headed down the mountain, waiting until he was well out of earshot before flooring the accelerator and hightailing it to his rendezvous location.

Meanwhile John had just finished organising protection for Dr Jackson and informed the SG1 member of the changes to his daily living that would have to take place. He would be confined to the base until the mess has been sorted out, and taken off the off-world teams and missions. Daniel had fumed at the restrictions but grudgingly accepted that it was for his own safety.

Leaving the grumbling archaeologist to his own bad mood, John headed back to the stateroom where he had left Elizabeth, noting that the airman who had stood guard by the door was missing. He tapped on the door with his knuckles before pushing it open, growing concerned as he found it empty. He searched for any sign of her, and found nothing… she was simply… gone.

His heart sank and his guts twisted into a thousand knots as he picked up the phone and called Dr Lam in a last ditch attempt to find Elizabeth. The Dr knew nothing about where Elizabeth had gone, sealing John's suspicions that something was very very wrong.

He picked up the phone again and dialled General Landry, informing him that Elizabeth was missing and to keep a close eye on Dr Jackson. He hung up and bolted for the security area, startling the poor Captain who had been keeping an eye on the monitors.

" Captain, pull up the security footage for the camera outside the stateroom for the last 30 minutes" John ordered, his voice thankfully more steady that he had feared it might be.

A few taps of the keyboard later and the airman appeared on screen, assisting Elizabeth into her wheelchair and pushing her out the door towards the nearest elevator. Before she was even asked the Captain pulled up the sequence from the camera near the elevator, her face paling as the screen showed the airman pulling a pistol with a silencer before the footage abruptly ended.

" Oh no…" The Captain whispered as she found nothing but static in the elevator camera as well. Sheppard bolted for the phone and ordered a security lockdown of the base, hoping to catch the kidnapper before he made his escape.

" Wait… I think I have something" The Captain interrupted, pulling up a camera from the staff car-park, not an ideal view as the camera wasn't in the direct line of the airman, but still it showed all they needed to see in a badly pixelated but still discernable image. Elizabeth was shown being hauled from the wheelchair, clearly unconscious by her lack of struggle and stuffed into the boot of a car before it was driven out of the car-park and towards the surface.

" Should I alert the security gates?" The Captain asked.

" Don't bother, they're long gone" John replied despondently, realising that he may never see Elizabeth again. Kicking the door in frustration he ordered the security tapes send to the labs for further analysis and went to break the news to Landry so they could formulate a plan. He couldn't help but feel the sinking feeling that as seconds and minutes ticked by, so did the chances of finding Elizabeth alive.


	4. Chapter 4

Dr Elizabeth Weir drowned in the medicated haze of semi-consciousness, barely aware of what was going on around her and utterly helpless to do anything but fight her way towards full wakefulness. After the airman had clamped the cloth over her mouth she'd instinctively held her breath, knowing it was a futile attempt at resistance but needing to do something, anything to try and help herself. Reflex forced her to inhale after a short while, and the metallic taste of the drug stung her throat to the point of almost making her gag. Before she could even take note of the rebellion of her stomach her limbs grew heavy, her mind clouding to the point of it shutting down entirely, sending her crashing into blackness.

She was aware of being moved… or more accurately moving in something. The constant rumbling and not so subtle vibrations made her conclude it was a car.. or a van she was travelling in, and the road was rough, either that or the rear suspension in whatever it was she was in was shot to hell. Slowly her senses began to return, fleetingly at first then with some semblance of normality. She found her mouth firmly gagged, forcing her to breathe through her nose. Her eyes were watering from the stench in the back of the car, the musty stale smell irritating her sinuses. It smelt like dead dog, no worse, wet dead dog. Charming. Cracking an eye open she was confronted with the boot lid only centimetres from her face, the metal as cold and unforgiving as her captors were most likely to be. With her hands bound securely behind her she was at the whim of those who had kidnapped her, unable to reach the emergency boot release, and most likely too groggy to do anything to defend herself anyway,

Thankfully the bumpy ride slowed as the road became rougher, the car crawling through the pot-hole laden road and finally stopping. Elizabeth froze, closing her eyes and evening out her breathing to make it appear she was still unconscious. A roller door could be heard rattling open, and the boot was opened. Rough hands grabbed her under the armpits and hauled her out of the car, dragging her a short distance before someone else picked up her trailing ankles. Not bothering to be careful about the cumbersome cast encasing one of them. She forced herself to remain limp despite the pain raging through her leg, radiating up her hip and side with each movement.

She was tossed unceremoniously into a cold room, a heavy door clicking and locking as the boots were heard retreating down a hallway. It was only then she dared to move, gingerly testing her fingers and toes to see if they all still worked properly. Her head throbbed as the drug wore off, made worse by the chilling cold of the concrete floor. Slowly she sat up, finding her hands still bound and her mouth still gagged. There goes screaming for help…She remembered something John always told her about survival situations. 'What have you got and what do you need'. What she had was a cold concrete room with no windows, almost like a cool-room or temperature controlled storeroom with no furniture apart from a wooden chair and some old pallets thrown into the corner. There was a tattered blanket that smelt like the same wet dead dog that the car had reeked of. There was no way in hell she was using THAT for warmth. What she needed was a way out, and gingerly she made her way to the door, carefully trying to turn the handle. It refused to budge, confirming her earlier conclusion that the room had been locked… from the outside. She thought John would have been proud of the way she examined every detail about the room, inspecting each panel seal, the door lock, and even the roof. With great effort she pulled one of the slats from the pallet, holding it clumsily in her hands and giving it an experimental swing to judge its balance. It was crude, but she felt a little less vulnerable with it. With a sigh of frustration she hobbled back to the chair and flopped down, determined to wait until her captors graced her with their presence.


	5. Chapter 5

Colonel John Sheppard stalked the office of General Landry like a caged animal. Confined within the small area he paced 5 steps in one direction, pivoted on his bootheel, then repeated, listening with only partial interest to the conversation Landry was having on the phone at the time. Dr Daniel Jackson was being placed in protective custody on the base and assigned a bodyguard at all times. SG1 had volunteered for the task of making sure their archeologist remained safe, worked in shifts to provide him 24 hour protection. John however seethed at the notion that the airman he had trusted with his wife's life had been a fake, whose sole purpose seemed to be infiltrating the SGC and kidnapping Dr Weir.

" Thank you Lt" Landry wound up the conversation and returned the phone to its cradle, turning his attention to the angsting Colonel in his office.

" Quit pacing John before you wear a hole in the floor" He commented brusquely, indicating the chair opposite the large wooden desk. John seemed to regard him for a moment before dropping reluctantly into the offered chair, unable to keep the frustration from his eyes.

" Sorry Sir" He grumbled as he slumped down, his eyes refusing to meet those of the Generals.

Landry seemed to sober a bit, tapping on his computer to clarify some information had just come through on email. He flicked through the document before regarding John again.

" They've traced the number plates to a stolen vehicle , and the credentials the airman also used were false strangely enough. The _real _Airman Frolham was found unconscious in a stairway near the carpark. Dr Lam tells me he'll make a full recovery in time" Landry said, closing the email and turning his attention back to John. " We're doing everything we can to trace the vehicle and the men involved, the security lab are making progress with the CCTV footage, and the local constabulary are on the lookout for anything suspicious. However, we've tried to track Dr Weir using the subcutaneous transmitter all Atlantis personnel were required to have implanted, but we're not picking up anything. We did however get a lead on her location before she entered what we believe is a shielded area"

John's head shot up at the positive news, almost not daring to hope that he might actually might see Elizabeth again.

" Just tell me where…" He whispered, already on his feet and leaning over the large desk.

" Not to fast Colonel, you'll wait for backup and you'll go in covertly. These people knew what they were after" Landry commanded, his tone leaving no room for argument. John's heart sank a little at the order but he still itched for action. Anything was better than sitting around waiting.

" Yes Sir… do you have an ETA and a location?" John queried, resisting the urge to start pacing again.

" You're taking SG3 with you, they'll be ready topside in 15 minutes. As for the location, Dr Weir's transmitter cut out around this area here" Landry swiveled his laptop around to show a satellite image of a disused industrial style building, its corrugated tin roof rusted with age. It was deep within a rural area, possibly used as an abattoir in years gone by. Now it seemed its purposes were even more sinister.

" Thank you Sir" John tossed over his shoulder as he bolted for the armoury, swapping his jacket for a tactical vest and his sidearm for some serious armaments. Less than 10 minutes later he was waiting near the black SUV for the rest of the team, anxious to get underway.

SG3 jogged out of the elevator, heavily strapped with ammunition and weapons, their black attire reinforcing the covert nature of their mission.

" Alright gentlemen, let's go" John encouraged, slapping a few of the team on the back as they clambered into the SUV, settling into their seats and readying themselves for the mission ahead.

90 minutes later the SUV pulled over to the side of the quiet country road, double checking their location against the last known location of Elizabeth's transponder. They were close… very close. Off to one side a narrow laneway disappeared through a cascade of drooping mass of trees, the asphalt giving way to a rutted dirt track as it meandered towards the low mountain range in the distance. A small conglomerate of buildings lay nestled at the foot of the hills, their badly decaying exteriors testament to many years of neglect.

" Down there" John indicated from the passenger seat, pointing down the track. "Take us as far as you can without being in sight of those buildings… we'll go the rest on foot" He explained, quickly checking his weapon and indicating for the rest of his team to ready themselves. The van crept forward, slowly rumbling down the pot hole ridden track, quietly and carefully as possible. About a kilometer away from the buildings, in a deep gully completely overgrown by large trees the driver pulled over and indicated this was the best location for them to disembark. Without a sound the team piled out of the SUV, the driver parking the black van between a nestle of trees that almost completely concealed it ever being there.

" Good luck" The driver whispered as the team headed for the tree-line, cautiously making their way up the laneway towards the buildings they had seen previously.

" Thanks... keep in touch" John replied, flicking his headset on and making sure everyone had a copy. They all nodded as his voice came through their earpieces, ensuring they all had comms. Whether it would remain that way was another thing entirely. If this building was that heavily shielded it could block a transponder, there was no doubt it could cause havoc with their radios.

As they neared the buildings John wished he'd been able to bring a life signs detector with him. Those things came in very handy on Atlantis, but the SGC hadn't had time to request one through the Stargate in the moments before their rescue mission had departed. Looks like he'd had to do things the old fashioned way.

Catching the attention of 2 of his men as the buildings came into sign John indicated the location he wanted them to move, motioning for them to head around the back of the building and secure any exits. They nodded and split from the rest of the team, disappearing around the side of the dilapidated building within moments. John drew to a halt himself, peeking around a corner before heading towards the only entrance he could see, trying to remain as concealed as possible.

A blood curdling scream tore his attention away from surveillance, chilling him to his very core. That scream could only belong to one person….Elizabeth.


	6. Chapter 6

Colonel John Sheppard froze in his tracks as the blood curdling scream ripped through the air. He resisted the urge to bolt in, remaining behind the safety of the doorframe for a few moments more to ensure it was safe enough to enter.

" Go!" He shouted into his headset, loud enough for the entire team to hear him even without their radios, whipping round the doorframe and kicking the door in with all of his might. The latch gave easily sending splintered frame flying in all directions. Without a pause John headed in, his P-90 leading the way as he heard chaos unfolding around him.

" Stop don't move!" shouts filled the building and John continued his fevered flight, desperate to find his wife in this barbaric hell hole. For several tense moments there was relative quiet and the rest of the team subdued and cuffed the thugs they found before continuing their search.

The sound of a pitiful whimper caught John's attention as quickly as any scream could and he bolted towards its direction, kicking down another door and leading with his weapon.

" Floor now.. or I start shooting" He threatened as the thugs inside smirked then begrudgingly dropped to the floor. Three more of this team plowed up the corridor behind him, flanking his as they came through the door, weapons drawn. John motioned for them to contain their new prisoners while he tended to Elizabeth, concerned as to the strange look in her eyes.

The gould squealed from its place behind Elizabeth's shoulder, its gleeful eyes feasting itself on its newest host. John's heart nearly dropped through his stomach as he saw his wife arch in pain, the voiceless scream coupled with her body going completely rigid. Without thinking he pulled out a zat-nikatel and fired, stunning both the gould and Elizabeth. Shoving the weapon back in its holster he carefully untied her restraints, noticing the marks on her upper chest where the gould had decided to toy with its new host before taking the final plunge. That explained the scream he heard earlier.

" Brickner, see if you can get the SUV on coms, get them to get a medical team here yesterday and enough backup to cover all these goons" Sheppard ordered, not wanting to move Elizabeth till she'd been checked over by the medics. Brickner bolted, obviously having no luck raising backup by radio until he'd cleared the shielded area. Within moments he'd returned, the rumble of the SUV behind him and the rattle of a chopper not too far behind.

Minutes stretched into eternity as more black clothed SG and marine teams flooded the complex, securing the numerous thugs and hauling them out to the waiting transport.

Dr Lam bustled in, a medical team with her and a helicopter gurney between them all.

" Tell me a story Colonel" She commented as she took stock of the situation. Elizabeth was still as John had found her, still blissfully unconscious with the tail end of a gould hanging out the back of her neck.

John gave her the edited version of what had transpired up to the point where he had discovered the gould and stunned the both of them. Lam looked up from her medical instruments and towards John.

" You sure you got it before it… attached itself?" She asked, carefully probing the limp gould with her gloved fingers.

" Yeah, she arched up, then I stunned them. There's no way it could have done anything yet" John replied, concern colouring his words.

" Well then, this shouldn't be a major issue then" Lam mentioned as she carefully rolled Elizabeth onto her side, pushing away the dark strands of curly hair to better look at the wound. With a pair of forceps she quickly cleaned around the area with a sterile solution before gently tugging on the ¾ of the gould that was exposed. Thankfully it dislodged easily, leaving a lovely gaping wound that started to bleed the moment the gould was removed.

" Err… someone…." Lam indicated the gould that she was still holding, and one of the medical team scurried forward with a secure container for her to drop it into. That done she set about bandaging the wound and getting her patient organized for transport.

" Is she gonna be alright doc?" John asked, trying not to sound like the guilt ridden husband he was.

" I think so, the gould didn't have time to attach to her brainstem, the wound should heal fairly quickly as so long as there hadn't been too much other trauma, she'll be back hassling you in a week or two" Lam smiled reassuringly as she co-ordinated moving Elizabeth onto the gurney and out towards the waiting helicopter.

" Thank God for small mercies" John retorted, knowing that things were a little more complicated that Lam was making out, but thankful for her reassurance none the less.

" You guys head back to the base with this lot, I'm hitchin a ride with the chopper." John called to his 2IC, who nodded knowingly then went back to his task of bailing the last of the thugs into the SUVs.

2 days later Elizabeth was back to her normal self, grumbling about being released back to her VIP rooms and away from the smothering watchfulness of John. The gould hadn't left any permanent damage and her broken bones miraculously hadn't suffered any ill effects from the rough treatment. She still ached from the beating, the bruises painfully dark against her pale skin. The Trust thugs had been processed and turned over to the local police for 'grevious bodily harm' charges, getting them out of the Air Force's hair and into a jail cell.

Over the next few weeks Elizabeth's condition improved steadily and she was finally allowed back home after the device was safely recovered from the compound and was back in the SGC's safe hands. The Trust seemed to have gone to ground to lick their wounds and it was doubtful they would try anything anytime soon.

Slowly, life got back to normal.

End.


End file.
